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the spring was well advanced, there was one night a bitter black frost, and in the morning the farmers found that all the young green corn was nipped and killed. Such a thing had never been known to happen before, and much it frightened the people, for what would they do if they had no corn with which to make their bread?

Then there fell over everything a terrible blight, and it killed all the young fruit, which fell from the trees. This alarmed the people even more, for it would indeed be bad if they had neither fruit nor bread to eat.

Then the weather turned very hot—so hot that no one could endure it—and all the grass was dried up, and the cows had nothing to eat, so that there was no milk to be had; and then the wells -and streams began to dry up, and the people began to fear there would soon be no water either. The rains did not come, and then, worst of all, a bad fever broke out in the village, and many persons fell sick. Still, no one thought that all these misfortunes had anything to do with the old shoemaker, who still sat by the roadside, selling his shoes and singing his queer rhymes. At last, one day, one of the men remembered the old